Everywhere Donnie Walsh turned, the name kept popping up. In the newspapers. In scouting reports. From NBA coaches.

There was this giant, skinny Dutch kid scoring all kinds of points at a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York. His name was Rik Smits.

Walsh wasn't about to ignore the buzz. A 7-4 player with perfect shooting form, averaging 18.2 points a game?

He headed up to New York to watch Smits inside Madison Square Garden, a tournament game. Smits got into foul trouble the first half, but he came out in the second with a vengeance, swiftly scoring 25 points — making it look so easy.

"He was such a good shooter. And that height?" said Walsh, who at the time was in his third year as Indiana Pacers president. "I just thought, 'He's going to be a really good NBA player.'"

NBA teams started taking notice of Rik Smits as he finished his basketball career at Marist College in New York.(Photo: Provided by Marist College)

Smits was hearing the praise from other NBA teams — this shy, unassuming guy who was born in Eindhoven, Netherlands, and grew up immersed in motorcycles and cars.

Basketball had always taken a backseat to his love of meandering along rustic trails on souped-up bikes.

But basketball, Smits knew, was his golden ticket in life.

As his college career played out, all those NBA teams came knocking at his door. He visited New Jersey, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Indiana.

Afterward, he had no doubt where he wanted to be. He just hoped Walsh agreed.

"I'm not much of a big city guy," Smits said from his Cave Creek, Ariz., home this month. "Indianapolis is a bigger city with almost a small town atmosphere."

Smits can still remember the relief he felt on June 28, 1988, sitting inside the theater at Madison Square Garden — where Walsh first saw him play — when he heard the words: "With the second pick in the NBA draft, the Indiana Pacers select Rik Smits."

"Thank goodness," Smits said, "the Pacers drafted me."

'He took a lot of heat'

It wasn't a popular pick at the time — at least to some Pacers fans. Who is this Smits guy, anyway? The year before, the team had gotten Reggie Miller.

The sports columnist for IndyStar wrote that Smits could be the "pall bearer at Walsh's career funeral."

Indiana Pacers 7-foot-4 center Rik Smits announced his retirement after 12 years in the NBA at a news conference in Indianapolis Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2000, with Pacers president Donnie Walsh, right. Smits said foot and knee injuries led to his decision. (AP Photo/Chuck Robinson)(Photo: Chuck Robinson/AP)

"When he first got here, he was raw and all that," said Walsh, who had planned to give Smits some time to get his feet wet in the NBA, as a back up to Steve Stipanovich.

But Stipanovich suffered a career-ending injury as the season began, putting Smits in the spotlight as Pacers starting center.

"He found out really quick what it was all about and that was difficult for him," said Walsh. "Everybody thinks the second pick in the draft should score a lot of points. Rik took a lot of heat for it, but he got through it."

Smits started 71 games in his rookie year, averaging 11.7 points and 6.1 rebounds per game and earning All-Rookie First Team honors.

He ended up spending his entire career with the Pacers, the player who would always be the quiet big man, No. 2 behind Reggie Miller. Walsh never saw him as No. 2.

"By the time he got his NBA legs on, he became probably our most important player on the team," he said.

Smits started 792 of the 867 games he played in his 12 seasons with the Pacers, finishing his career averaging 14.8 points and 6.1 rebounds per game. He often did it despite extreme pain. Smits had nerve damage in his feet, which ultimately ended his NBA career in 2000.

With Smits on the team, the Pacers made it to the playoffs 10 times. Four of those years, 1994, 1995, 1998 and 1999, they went to the Eastern Conference Finals. In 2000, the Pacers — for the first and, so far, last time as an NBA team — went to the finals.

Even when he was having one of his stellar games, Smits was never that showboat, attention-grabbing NBA star. He endeared himself to fans with his quiet demeanor, shy smile and his play.

Rik Smits endeared himself to fans with his quiet demeanor, shy smile and his play.(Photo: MATT KRYGER, INI STAFF)

He did the same with his teammates, said Bobby "Slick" Leonard, who coached the Pacers until 1980 and then became the team's color commentator.

On the team plane, the guys often played poker. There were a few times Smits joined in, just a few, said Leonard.

"If he got ahead, he would always quit," Leonard said. Smits was a frugal guy who never got into the expensive fashion of some NBA stars.

Out in public, he would often be found in a cheap pair of jeans, a little too short, and a draping sweatshirt.

"Old Rik, he was an unusual guy," said Leonard. "But, boy, could he shoot."

The unlikely star

There may be no other player in the history of the NBA who talks less about his playing days than Smits.

When asked some of his favorite moments on the court, "There are so many," he said. When pushed, he gave one line descriptions of the games.

"One time in Denver, I think, we beat them so bad we doubled their score, like 65 to 130," Smits said, "so that was pretty cool."

That was actually a game against Portland in 1998 when, for the first time in the NBA's 51-year history, a team scored more than twice as many points as the other.

That team was the Pacers, who beat the Trailblazers 124-59 in Indianapolis. Smits had half of Indiana's points during a 16-0 run in the first quarter.

Another favorite moment from Smits: "There was the last second shot against the Magic," he said.

That would be Smits' last second shot in the 1995 Eastern Conference Finals. The Pacers trailed Orlando 93-92 with 1.3 seconds left. Smits snagged an inbound pass from Derrick McKey, took one step inside the paint, faked a shot and then drained it with 0.1 seconds left on the clock.

Pacer Rik Smits, left, is mobbed by teammate Reggie Miller and Mark Jackson after Smits hit a 15-footer at the buzzer to defeat Orlando 94-93. The win tied the series at 2-2 in the Eastern Conference Finals at Market Square Arena. Pacer Byron Scott is at right.(Photo: Mike Fender / The Star file photo)

"He was so big and so good on the post," said Walsh. "If you didn’t have a player to play him, which a lot of teams didn't, the game was over in the first quarter."

It forced teams to resort to defense. Many would pull off of Miller or Chuck Person to double-team Smits.

"Then, that was a 3-point shot for us," said Walsh. "He was pivotal for us in every way."

Shaquille O'Neal last year included Smits as one of the four players he feared when entering the league, along with Patrick Ewing, David Robinson and Hakeem Olajuwon.

"Rik destroyed me every time," O'Neal told "Sports Illustrated." "Pick-and-pop, jump hook in the post, I couldn't stop that kid. If it wasn't for his foot problems, I probably (never would) have been able to stop him."

The Pacers lost to the Lakers in the 2000 NBA Finals 4-2. During the games, if fans looked closely, they could see the pain on Smits' face. His feet weren't going to cooperate any longer.

He retired in 2000 from the NBA, a lifelong Pacer, the beloved Dunking Dutchman.

After the NBA

Former Pacers center Rik Smits poses with one of his vintage motocross motorcycles, a 1983 Husqvarna 430 cc, at his Zionsville, Ind. home in 2010.(Photo: Charlie Nye / The Star)

As a little boy in the Netherlands, Smits had fallen in love with the Berini 50cc motorcycle, stripped and rebuilt into a dirt bike.

It was a gift from his grandpa. Smits was 7 years old and he rode that bike everywhere.

As a teenager, he scrounged up money to buy other motorcycles. He’d fix them, merge two models into one creation then trade or sell them.

Motorcycles were most definitely his passion — until he turned 17 and left for the United States to use that golden basketball ticket to play.

When he retired in 2000, he had the money to turn that childhood love into something huge. At one time, he had hundreds of bikes and cars at his Zionsville home. He’s downsized since.

Now living in Arizona, Smits still restores old motor bikes and “messes around with old cars,” he said.

He does a lot of off-road riding. He can start in his backyard and explore hundreds of miles of trails. He also comes back to Pacers games, where fans love to see the big man in the stands.

Amanda Loyd, who grew up watching the Pacers and was a die-hard Smits fan — she even had a T-shirt that read “Smits Happens” — walked past him at a game in 2014.

Amanda Loyd snagged a photo with her favorite Pacers player Rik Smits when he came back to a game in 2014.(Photo: Provided by Amanda Loyd)

“My husband was cracking up because I kind of freaked out,” she said. Loyd had him ask Smits if he would take a picture with her.

“You could tell Rik looked around because he didn’t want a bunch of people to ask the same,” she said. “But (he) gave me a shy smile and took a quick one with me.”

That moment proved everything she had loved about him in his playing days.

“He was never there for the fame or glory,” Loyd said. “But he always showed up and gave it his all.”

Smits is so unassuming about his NBA career, he didn’t even realize it had been 30 years since he joined the Pacers — until this interview.

“Really? It’s hard to believe,” he said. “Thirty years ago then, I guess, my life changed.”